Welcome to Clean Start, ThinkProgress Green’s morning round-up of the latest in climate and clean energy. Here is what we’re reading. What are you?

Hundreds of New York residents who signed leases allowing gas companies to drill deep into their properties with a method known as horizontal hydraulic fracturing have changed their minds and are trying to break or renegotiate their contracts. [New York Times]

Several new cables that WikiLeaks has released shed additional light on how Chevron tried to get help from the US Embassy in Ecuador to have its massive oil spill case dismissed over the years. [Blue Marble]

Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) signed three renewable energy bills on Thursday, which will help the school districts and businesses build multimillion-dollar solar projects. [Fresno Bee]

Jake Schmidt on the Keystone XL pipeline: “It is clear that this pipeline is not in the national interest since it undercuts a major US policy objective of addressing climate change.” [NRDC]

Rep. Billy Long (R-MO), a Tea Party firebrand freshman, has embraced the massive support from the federal government in the wake of the Joplin tornado. [NPR]

Heavy rain will drench much of the Eastern Seaboard from the Mid-Atlantic to New England on Friday and through the weekend, which could bring more flooding to a region battered by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. [USA Today]